It’s finally time to introduce another beetle, and I decided to go on with a member of the family Chrysomelidae, one of the most diverse and important in the world. The chosen species, Aspidimorpha miliaris, is commonly known as the spotted tortoise beetle.

Native from the Indomalayan region, the spotted tortoise beetle occurs from western India to Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia. It measures 1.5 cm in length and, as usual among tortoise beetles, the elytra (hardened forewings) and the pronotum (the foremost dorsal plate of the thorax) are widened and cover the whole body. These structures are transparent and the elytra also have many black spots. The body seen below this transparent armor varies from white to yellow and orange.

The spotted tortoise beetle calls attention not only because of its beautiful color but also because its larvae feed voraciously on plants of the genus Ipomoea and related genera, which include, among others, the sweet potato. Due to its habitat being near the equator, the spotted tortoise beetle is able to reproduce during the whole year, although its peak in abundance seems to be around June.

The eggs hatch about 10 days after being laid by the female and the larvae pass through five instars during a period of 18 to 22 days, after which they molt into a pupa that, about a week later, turns into the adult. The larvae live in groups and have a pale body marked with four black spots on the dorsal side of most segments. There are also some spiny projections running along the margins of the body.

Due to the spotted tortoise beetle’s status as a pest in sweet potato plantations, biological forms to control it have been studied and include the use of leaf extracts as pesticides, as well as parasitoid wasps as predators of eggs. On the other hand, the beetle itself could be used as an efficient agent to control the spread of some invasive species of Ipomoea.

This is how nature acts. Your enemy on one side can be your friend on the other.